Your memories as Microsoft shuts off the video call service

From the blossomed love of long distances to helping families to remain connected, for years Skype has occupied a unique place in the hearts of people.

In the days before Zoom, WhatsApp and teams, video call service was once one of the most popular websites in the world.

This allowed people to make free computer calls to a computer and then became the way users could call low -cost calls to landline and mobile phones in other parts of the world.

In recent years, however, Skype has declined as its owner Microsoft has focused on teams. His services will close forever on May 5, with the Skype for Business feature being the only part that remains.

Here are just some of the many people whose life has been touched by Skype since it started in 2003.

Weg and Owen Williams have a lot to thank Skype – this is one of the main reasons why they are married.

In 2012, Weg left Macau, China, to start a six -month internship on a national Trust site in Kararteshire, Wales.

Feeling a little at home, she would talk to friends and family on Skype. She then met with Owen, who also worked for the national Trust.

At first they were friends, but after Weg returned to Macau, the romance blossomed in the months of Skype conversations and visits to see.

“Skype was a very important part of our relationship,” she said.

When they decided to embark on a long distance relationship, Skype was the adhesive that kept it together.

They call the video every day – including when weg sent Owen’s birthday cake and he cut it in front of her during their chat.

“It was quite sweet,” she said. “Skype just continued us.”

In the end, the couple got engaged, and Weg moved to Wales in 2015.

Now they are happily married.

Like many over the years, Erica from New Zealand has been using Skype to communicate with a loved one while they were in another part of the world.

In her case, it was her husband when one of them was on a work trip.

After his death in 2017, Skype took on another role in Erica, which spoke with the BBC anonymously.

“I cleared his files to output his work computer,” she told the BBC News.

“I had the opportunity to review those messages that we exchanged and realized how they inadvertently document a period of disaster and heartache in our relationships.”

What Erika did afterwards tried to bring some closure to this difficult period into her life.

“I sent a posthumous message to his Skype address, to which I – or he,” I replied from his computer, “she said.

Erika said that a brief conversation back and forth “for a period of weeks” – where she will send a message to his Skype address and then answer herself from his account.

“In this exchange, we answered the messages and questions of each other with all the apologies and regret that we had to hear from each other,” she said.

“Helped me to move on. I believed it.”

Since 2003, Susan Bertotti has lived in Chile. Skype was her way to keep in touch with her mother Vera, who lives in Milton Keynes.

In the last 15 years, they have been talking to each other every day when they are separated into Skype.

From sharing Christmas memories to displaying your gardens in Chile and England, the video call app is constant.

“Skype gave my mother and I am the most beautiful close relationship all these years,” Susan said.

When she became careful of her mother, Susan uses the app to deal with his entire life administrator in the UK.

Over the years, the family has begun to use WhatsApp, but they still use Skype to set their chats. Vera is already 99.

“For me, this will be a huge loss,” Susan said.

“I will go back to calls at lost distances now on her behalf and this will be terrible or I will have to send an email.

“I’m so disappointed with Skype loss.”

Being able to call internationally without big fees is an important part of Stan Calderud’s business.

On the day it was announced that the service would be closed, he used it eight times to call real estate agents, accountants and lawyers in Canada for the sale of property there.

“You can’t call everyone in WhatsApp, Zoom or Teams,” he said.

“You have to call the people on their mobile phones and their landlines, especially business.”

Stan now is looking for a new alternative to cheap for cheap international conversations.

While Skype has dropped in recent years, he still had millions of users – with the website Statista, which states that he had almost 28 million as of March last yearS

So what happens now?

Microsoft says Skype free services will be retired and users have a choice – they go to teams or export their Skype data, including chats, contacts and call history.

“The time of this change is guided by significant progress and acceptance of Microsoft teams,” said a Microsoft spokesman.

“FREE teams offers many of the same basic features as Skype.”

In the meantime, the company says its Skype for business users are unaffected by the change And the service will continue.

One of these clients is the Ministry of Defense (MoD). The spokesman told him to the BBC that MOD withdraws the bigger part of his Skype service while moving to teams, but a “small group of users” will continue to use the Skype business version.

For Skype customers who pay subscription or have loans to make calls to landline and mobile phones, they will be able to use Skype Dial Pad in the teams. When their credit or subscription is over, there will be no way to continue using it.

Skype, as we know, go – and with it, one of the most recognizable technological products of this century.